THINGS CHANGE

Shortly after word of the closing of the venerable Connecticut School of Broadcasting a couple of years ago, I began hearing all of the criticism that came pouring out of the woodwork. Waste of good money….scam……they don’t pay their teachers, so they don’t get decent teachers…..they teach nothing that can be used in an actual broadcast. I can tell you from first hand experience that every bit of this criticism is misinformed. The summer of ’64 found me readying myself for my senior year in high school in the Greater Hartford area. It was a time when our major influence was Top 40 radio and the disc jockey who served as the soundtrack to our life’s adventures. That year, the new disc jockey in town, was Dick Robinson on WDRC. I had an inkling , somewhere in the back of my mind, that radio was the way I wanted to go, but, within a couple of years, I was sidetracked by military service and a little trip to Southeast Asia, where I dabbled in “playin’ the hits” on a local station'…for free. Upon return, I was pleasantly surprised to find a brand new school started by my then faceless hero, Dick Robinson……called The Connecticut School of Broadcasting. When I found that the GI Bill would pay for it, I jumped in with both feet. Lessons were taught by Dick and a few other local broadcasters who had a love for the business that they wanted, fervently to pass on to those they deemed worthy to carry the mantle. Classes were held in a hotel room in downtown Hartford and we learned, on an old reel-to-reel tape deck and a couple of turntables, all of the little technical tricks necessary to help make our dreams a reality. We also learned what we needed to know to pass the exam for the then requisite FCC license. One of the first and best lessons I learned was that nobody can teach anyone else to be a personality, but, if you are so well versed in all of the technical stuff that it becomes second nature and your hands automatically move to where they are supposed to be without thinking about it, you will be able to concentrate on your content and personality. I also learned that as competitive as the business was back then, if nobody could talk me out of it….I would, eventually, work in it. I have, now, for 43 years. Over the past 44 years or so, Dick Robinson has expanded his bona-fide love for the industry into 27 schools nationwide. And, as the criticism of trade schools in general and broadcasting schools in particular grew, so did Dick’s enthusiasm for turning out the best broadcasters possible. This has come to fruition countless times over the years and over the airwaves with the likes of MSNBC’s Rita Cosby, Bill St. James, the voice of Showtime and Nickelodeon and one of the most recognizable voices today and…I'm almost ashamed to admit.... Rush Limbaugh (cringe, to name but a very few. A few years back, Dick Robinson decided to sell his creation and the Connecticut School of Broadcasting was taken over by people who had no passion for broadcasting and no passion for their students. It was, kind of, mirroring the fate of most of radio today – taken over by corporate entities who have no clue about broadcast entertainment and care about nothing but the bottom line. I was privileged to teach at the Irving, Tx. campus for its first year in the DFW Metroplex, while Dick was still in charge. After he sold, I heard key people on the phone blatantly lying to prospective students to get them to borrow the money to come to the school and laughing about it after they hung up. It seemed as though everyone who called was awarded a “scholarship.” It became an unethical and greedy mess that I no longer wanted to be a part of. The world of radio has changed into something unrecognizable and the Connecticut School of Broadcasting followed suit with its new owners. When the students showed up, ready to go to work a few weeks ago, only to find the doors locked, all I could think was….wow, that’s the best lesson of all about the reality of the industry today. Welcome to radio.